Presses for irregular articles



June 14, 1966 P. H. v. DAWSON PRESSES FOR IRREGULAR ARTICLES Filed NOV.13, 1964 QXX fm/eniar: Pefer Hugh Vernon Dawson .3 hfs flzlarney UnitedStates Patent 3,255,476 PRESSES FOR IRREGULAR ARTICLES Peter Hugh VernonDawson, Leicester, England, assignor to United Shoe MachineryCorporation, Flemington, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Nov.13, 1964, Ser. No. 410,861 Claims priority, application Great Britain,Nov. 30, 1963, 47,364/ 63 5 Claims. (Cl. 1252) This invention relates toa press for pressing the total area of an article of irregularconfiguration and crosssection into intimate, continuous contact with asecond article. The press is particularly adapted for firmly pressing anadhesively coated shoe part, such as a box toe, into engagement with ashoe upper throughout the total area of said shoe part and forsimultaneously activating the adhesive coating whereby to establish acontinuous bond between the contacting surfaces or interface of themembers.

Although a press made in accordance with this invention is broadlyapplicable to the establishment of a contacting relationship between anarticle of irregular configuration and cross-section and a secondarticle and to the activation of an adhesive coating on one of saidarticles, a description of the press is most facilely accomplished byreference to the attachment of a box toe or stiffener to a shoe upper.Accordingly, the specification hereinafter will be directed to adiscussion of the problems relating .to the attachment of a box toe andto the delineation of a press embodying the subject invention whichsuccessfully solves these problems.

In the manufacture of certain types of shoes, it is common practice toattach stiffeners, referred to as box toes, to the vamp portion of ashoe upper prior to assembly of the upper on a last. The box toe.addsstrength to the toe area of the shoe and prevents its deformation. Acommon method of attaching the box toe comprises coating the surface ofthe box toe which is to engage the upper with a heat-sensitive adhesive,placing it in engagement with the upper and subsequently activating theadhesive by various means such as a steam chamber.

The novel method of attaching in which the press of the subjectinvention is employed comprises positioning an adhesively coated box toeon an upper and pressing it into intimate contact with the upperthroughout its entire area and simultaneously activating the adhesive bymeans of the press to be hereinafter described and claimed. The noveltyof this method per se does not emanate for inventiveness but rather fromthe lack of prior art teaching of a press which permits implementationof the method. The press must provide means for activating heatsensitiveadhesive on the box toe without adversely effecting the grain surface ofthe upper by the application of excessive heat. It must also be capableof pressing the box toe into intimate contact with a surface of an upperdespite irregularities in cross-section as discussed hereinafter.

The marginal portion of a box toe is frequently skived to provide atapered surface which blends into the surface of an upper to which it isattached. That is, the periphery of the box toe is tapered to provide asmooth transition to the raised portion established by the major area ofthe box toe. The presence of the box toe is thus effectively concealedwhereby there is no indication of the boundary thereof in the exteriorof the completed shoe. It is difficult to establish intimate, continuouscontact of the surface of the skived margin of a box toe with thesurface of an upper and to activate adhesive on the tapered portions bymeans of a heated press. Heretofore, the platen of a press used for thispurpose had to be machined to exacting tolerances to complement theconfiguration of the 3,255,476 Patented June 14, 1966 particular box toeto be used at extreme cost. Attachment of box toes by use of a heatedpress was thus economically unfeasible and, therefore, was not acommercial method prior to the revelation of the press taught by thisinvention.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a pressfor pressing an article of manufacture of irregular configuration andcross-section into intimate contact with a second article to establishcontinuous engagement of the total area of one surface of the firstarticle with a surface of the second article and toactivateheat-sensitive adhesive on one of said articles whereby to establish acontinuous bond between said surfaces.

A further and more specific object is to provide a press for pressing astiffener or similar shoe part of irregular cross-section intocontinuous engagement with a second shoe part and for activatingheat-sensitive adhesive on said stiffener whereby to establish a bondextending across the entire surface area of the stiffener in contactwith the second shoe part.

To these ends and in accordance with a feature of the present invention,there is provided a press for attaching an article of manufacture coatedwith thermoactive adhesive to a second article of manufacture comprisinga first platen, a deformable membrane secured along its peripheralmargin to said first platen, a mass of relatively low melting pointmaterial enclosed between said first platen and said deformablemembrane, a second platen,

and means for heating said first platen whereby to heat of manufactureinto continuous contact and to activatesaid thermoactive adhesive whensaid articles are pressed between said platens.

The above and other features of the invention including various noveldetails of construction and combinations of parts will now be moreparticularly described with reference to the accompanying drawing andpointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the pressembodying the invention is shown by way of illustration and not as alimitation of the invention. The principles and features of thisinvention may be utilized in varied 'and numerous embodiments withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention.

In the drawing:

The figure is a view, partly in section, of upper and lower platens of apress embodying the features of the subject invention.

The press of the subject invention comprises a fixed lower platen 10 anda movable upper platen 12. The

upper platen 12 may be mounted for movement relative to the lower platenby any convenient means such as a pneumatic piston 14 housed in'acylinder 16. The structure appurtenant to the cylinder 16 or otherconvenient operating means and the mounting means therefor may be ofconventional design and are not illustrated in the drawing as they donot constitute a part of this invention.

The upper platen 12 has a resilient sheet or membrane 18 secured andhermetically sealed along its peripheral margin to the peripheral marginof the platen 12. The membrane 18 comprises, for example, a woven orknitted glass fibre cloth impregnated and coated with silicone rubberpaste. A cavity formed between the lower surface of the upper platen 12and the resilient membrane 18 is filled with a mass 20 of low meltingpoint alloy such as Cerobond, Woods Metal or Rose Metal. Air andmoisture are evacuated from the cavity. A skirt 22 surrounds the sealbetween the membrane 18 and the upper platen 12 to prevent escape of thealloy mass 20 if the seal is damaged. The upper platen 12. is heatedduring the use of the press, as hereinafter described, to melt the lowmelting point alloy thereby to render it deformable and to heat thedeformable membrane 18. The platen 12 is preferably heated by aplurality of electric heating elements 25 positioned in cavities 26 inthe platen 12.

In practicing the method of attaching a box toe to an upper in which apress embodying the features of the present invention is used, a skivedbox toe 30 having for example, skived margins 32 and a thermoactivecement coating on its unskived surface is placed on the flesh side of aleather upper 40 with the cement in contact with the upper. The leatherupper 40 and box toe 30 positioned thereon are then located on the lowerplaten in alignment with the membrane 18 of the upper platen 12. Theheating elements are activated by any convenient means (not shown)whereby heat is transferred through the platen 12 to the mass 20 of lowmelting point alloy. The heated mass 20 is thereby converted to a liquidor semi-liquid state and is, therefore, readily deformable to facilitateuniform application of pressure to an article of irregular cross-sectionsuch as the box toe with skived margins 32. Heat is also transferredthrough the mass of alloy 20 to heat the deformable membrane 18. Whenthe press is to be used repeatedly within a given period of time, thealloy mass 20 may be maintained continuously in the molten state toeliminate the time necessary to convert it from its normal solid statecondition.

When the mass of alloy 20 and the membrane 18 have been adequatelyheated, the platen 12 is lowered under the action of fluid pressureadmitted to the cylinder 16 and the membrane 18 is urged into resilientengagement with the box toe 30. The membrane 18 and alloy mass 20 aredeformed as a result of the pressure applied thereto and assume aconfiguration complementary to the irregular cross-section of the boxtoe 30' and its skived margins 32. The application of pressure by theplaten 12 through the membrane 18 and molten alloy mass 20 thus urgesthe box toe 30 including the tapered margin 32 into continuous contactwith the upper 40 over the entire contacting interface.

The heated membrane 18 also functions to transfer heat to the box toe 30whereby the heat-sensitive adhesive is activated and a continuous bondestablished throughout the entire contacting surface area of the box toe30' and upper 40.

Having thus described my invention What I claim as new and-desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A press for attaching an article of manufacture coated withthermoactive adhesive to a second article of manufacture comprising afirst platen, a deformable membrane secured along its peripheral marginto said first platen, a mass of relatively low melting point metallicmaterial enclosed between said first platen and said deformablemembrane, a second platen, means for moving said first and secondplatens toward and away from each other, and means for heating saidfirst platen whereby to heat said membrane and to melt said low meltingpoint metallic material thereby facilitating the deformation of saidmembrane and said low melting point metallic material by said articlesto be attached to urge said articles into complete continuousinterfacial contact and to activate said thermoactive adhesive when saidarticles are pressed together between said platens.

2. A press for pressing an article of manufacture hav ing an irregularcontour into intimate, continuous contact with a second article ofmanufacture comprising a first platen, a deformable membrane securedalong its peripheral margin to said first platen, a mass of relativelylow melting point metallic material enclosed between said first platenand said deformable membrane, a second platen for supporting saidarticles, means for heating said first platen whereby to heat saidmembrane and to melt said low melting point metallic material, and meansfor urging the membrane into resilient contact with one of said articlessupported on said second platen whereby said membrane and said lowmelting point metallic material are deformed to assume a contourcomplementary to that of the articles, and to establish continuousinterfacial contact between said articles.

3. A press for attaching an article of manufacture coated withthermoactive adhesive and having an irregular contour to a secondarticle of manufacture comprising a first platen, a deformable membranecontinuously secured along its margin to said first platen therebyforming a cavity therebetween, a mass of relatively low melting pointmetallic material enclosed in said cavity, a second platen forsupporting said articles, means for heating said first platen whereby toheat said membrane and to melt said low melting point metallic material,and means for urging said membrane into resilient contact with saidfirst article whereby said membrane and said low melting point metallicmaterial are deformed to assume a contour complementary to that of saidfirst article thereby to establish continuous interfacial contactbetween the articles mounted on the second platen and to activate theadhesive on said first article.

4. A press for attaching a box toe having thermoactive adhesive on Oneside thereof to a shoe upper comprising a first platen, a deformablemembrane secured along its peripheral margin to said first platen, amass of relatively low melting point material enclosed between saidfirst platen and said deformable membrane, a second platen, means formoving said first and second platens toward and away from each other,and means for heating said membrane and melting said low melting pointmaterial thereby facilitating the deformation of said membrane wherebyto urge said box toe into continuous contact with said upper and toactivate said thermoactive adhesive when the box toe and shoe upper arepressed between said platens.

5. A press for attaching a box toe coated with thermoaactive adhesiveand having an irregular contour to a shoe upper comprising a firstplaten, a deformable membrane continuously secured to said first platento form a cavity therebetween, a mass of relatively low melting pointmaterial enclosed in said cavity, a second platen for supporting saidbox toe. and shoe upper, means for heating said first platen whereby toheat said membrane and to melt said low melting point material, andmeans for urging said membrane into resilient contact with said box toewhereby said membrane and said low melting point material are deformedto assume a contour complementary to that of said box toe thereby toestablish continuous interfacial contact between said members and toactivate the adhesive on said box toe.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,365,267 1/1921Oakley 12'33.2 X 2,382,004 8/ 1945 Curran 211 X 2,426,267 8/1947 Hart1233.2 X 2,489,643 11/1949 Hunter 1233.2 X 2,725,091 11/1955 Miner et al100211 X FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Examiner.

P. D. LAWSON, Assistant Examiner.

1. A PRESS FOR ATTACHING AN ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE COATED WITHTHERMOACTIVE ADHESIVE TO A SECOND ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE COMPRISING AFIRST PLATEN, A DEFORMABLE MEMBRANE SECURED ALONG ITS PERIPHERAL MARGINTO SAID FIRST PLATEN, A MASS OF RELATIVELY LOW MELTING POINT METALLICMATERIAL ENCLOSED BETWEEN SAID FIRST PLATEN AND SAID DEFORMABLEMEMBRANE, A SECOND PLATEN, MEANS FOR MOVING SAID FIRST AND SECONDPLATENS TOWARD AND AWAY FROM EACH OTHER, AND MEANS FOR HEATING SAIDFIRST PLATEN WHEREBY TO HEAT SAID MEMBRANE AND TO MELT SAID LOW MELTINGPOINT METALLIC MATERIAL THEREBY FACILITATING THE DEFORMATION OF SAIDMEMBRANE AND SAID LOW MELTING POINT METALLIC MATERIAL BY SAID ARTICLESTO BE ATTACHED TO URGE SAID ARTICLES INTO COMPLETE CONTINUOUSINTERFACIAL CONTACT AND TO ACTIVATE SAID THERMOACTIVE ADHESIVE WHEN SAIDARTICLES ARE PRESSED TOGETHER BETWEEN SAID PLATENS.